Why So Many PC Games Have A Launcher: Can You Skip Them?

I’m going to sound old now, butback in my day(when dinosaurs still roamed the earth?!), you could launch PC games with ease: you just double clicked the .exe shortcut, which was usually located on the desktop. Simple.

Now, though, we seem to have a million launchers lying around, and games have to go through these launchers – and then usually download some unexpected update. Why is this? And can they be skipped, so we can go back to launching our PC games insecondsand not minutes?

Why PC Games Have Launchers

Gaming on a PC one or two decades ago was fairly simple: you would insert the CD/DVD disc, install the game, and get an .exe shortcut file on your desktop.To play the game, you would… wait for it… double click the .exe, and the game would launch in seconds. Wow!

So it’s frustrating that we are now in a position whereeveryPC gameseems to have an annoying launcher, that pops up saying“Preparing to launch…”before you can actually play the game!

A game launcher is known as ‘middleware’, in the sense that it sits in the middle of your operating system and the actual game. When you ‘request’ to play a game, this request actually goes through the game launcher – which then performs a number of checks.

Some game launchers are part of game stores, such as ones fromSteam, Itch.io and Epic Games. Whereas other launchers exist purely tooptimize a game, such as ones from AMD Radeon and GeForce Experience.

Despite being annoying, game launchers can actually provide a number of benefits:

Okay, so that covers thepositiveandoptimisticarguments for game launchers. However there are some slightly more… nefarious reasons that they exist, too.

In short: PC game launchers have grown massively because they offer a variety of benefits – from controlled software updates, to exclusive discounts. But profit-seeking, mass data collection and DRM are also reasons why game developers are launching their own platforms.

Can You Skip PC Game Launchers?

Thankfully there are some ways that game launchers can be skipped: it just depends on the game platform you used (such as Steam or Epic Games), and also the game itself.

For games installed on Steam, you just need to go into the game’s properties (by right clicking it in your library, and clicking “Properties”), then add-nolauncherunder “Launch Options”:

This will then make it launch faster, by skipping the full launch process. One downside of this, though, is that any necessary updates might not get installed – meaning that you can’t enter multiplayer modes until these are installed.

A similar process can often be followed for other game platforms. For example, on Epic Games, you can sometimes skip the launcher by clicking into a game’s settings, going to “Additional Command Line Arguments” and adding-skip_launcheror–skip-launcher.

While thissometimesworks, it’s not 100% reliable. Other users have had to install extra scripts to have a better experience with Epic Games:

If hacking game launchers doesn’t sound fun to you, you might want to considerGoG Galaxywhich is a pretty awesome game store. Firstly, they have a pretty goodDRM-free commitment. Well, some games might havesomelevel of DRM – but it won’t be some always-on, controlling rubbish that affects so many other games.

Secondly, their games don’t have buggy, bloaty launchers that take ages to launch a game. In-fact, games purchased via GoG comewrapped in their own self-executable filethat is more like games of old (where you installed the game with a CD/DVD first):

No, you don’t need any additional apps or launchers. All games downloaded from GOG are nicely wrapped in a self-executable (exe) setup file, some of the larger games are accompanied by binary files.

So youcanoften skip PC game launchers – especially on Steam and GoG – but the exact process might vary, and some launchers (like Epic Games) make it harder than it needs to be.

Why Isn’t Steam The Only Launcher?

I used to dislike going to actual shops tobuy game CDs, so I really loved seeing Steam come on the scene and transform PC gaming into a convenient, digital marketplace – with a simple, lightweight client.

It has therefore been annoying to see an increasing number of games disappear from Steam, includingRocket League, Fortnite and more. Many games have become exclusive to their own developer’s game store, such as Epic Games whichnow boast a numberof exclusive games.

Unfortunately this trend will not quickly reverse itself. While Bethesda didshut down their own launcher and move back to Steam, many of the other big game companies (like Epic, Ubisoft and EA) will continue to have their own game launchers/stores – meaning that the era of multiple game launchers is here to stay.

And why is this? Well, we touched on the reasons earlier: money, corporate greed, telemetry (i.e. data collection) and DRM! Sorry if that sounds negative, but it’s true. There is no real incentive for the big game developers to shut down their launchers, and go back to giving Steam 30% of game revenue.

It’s the same story with movie and TV series streaming. There was a time where Netflix ruled all, having an amazing library of content to watch. But now there are acrazy number of streaming services, which would cost you well over $100 per month if you subscribed to them all.

Examples Of The Various Game Launchers (12 And Counting!)

There are at least a dozen fairly prominent PC game launchers available right now, and I list these below:

The number actually used to be higher, because there was a time where you could still actively use Origin and UPlay, before they got deprecated in favor of EA App and Ubisoft Connect.

I personally mainly use Steam, and only install other launchers if I really need to (for example, if they have an exclusive game that I really want). But since I’m mainly aRocket League addict– and I still have it installed via Steam – I don’t often need to dive into the other launchers.

Are Launcher-Free Games A Panacea – Or A Problem?

Before wrapping up, I wanted to discuss whether you can still have ‘the good old days’ where a game had a simple .exe, and no launcher.

The short answer is yes, you can still get games without launchers. Many games produced before 2015 can still work without launchers, plus games purchased through GoG don’t really have a launcher. Most indie games from Itch.io also launch quickly and with minimal issues.

However I would point out thatsomelaunchers (or PC game stores) are actually a good thing, so I wouldn’t restrict myself to only playing games from the year 2000!

Steam and GoG are fairly user-friendly experiences, and their launcher is either fairly quick (in the case of Steam), or non-existent (since GoG wrap the game in a simple .exe). But both platforms help to manage game updates and patching fairly easily, which is important because so many games nowadays are rushed out – and then subject to regular updates and patches.

The ‘good old days’ of installing all your games through a CD/DVD wasn’t actually all that good. If you lost the disc, you would lose access to the game. Plus you would have to sift through the developer’s website to see if updates were available.

I really like that I can launch Steam from a new computer (or new OS install), easilydownload my games, and play them again.

Related Reading:Why Are PC Games Getting So Expensive? (Some Console Games Are Cheaper)

Tristan has been interested in computer hardware and software since he was 10 years old. He has built loads of computers over the years, along with installing, modifying and writing software (he’s a backend software developer ‘by trade’).Tristan also has an academic background in technology (in Math and Computer Science), so he enjoys drilling into the deeper aspects of technology.Tristan is also an avid PC gamer, with FFX and Rocket League being his favorite games.